Divination, the use of special talents and techniques to gain divine knowledge, was practiced in many different forms in ancient Israel and throughout the ancient world. The Hebrew Bible reveals a variety of traditions of women associated with divination. This sensitive and incisive book by respected scholar Esther J. Hamori examines the wide scope of women's divinatory activities as portrayed in the Hebrew texts, offering readers a new appreciation of the surprising breadth of women's "arts of knowledge" in biblical times. Unlike earlier approaches to the subject that have viewed prophecy separately from other forms of divination, Hamori's study encompasses the full range of divinatory practices and the personages who performed them, from the female prophets and the medium of En-dor to the matriarch who interprets a birth omen and the "wise women" of Tekoa and Abel and more. In doing so, the author brings into clearer focus the complex, rich, and diverse world of ancient Israelite divination.

Women have been represented in art, literature, music, and more for decades, with the image of the woman changing through time and across cultures. However, rarely has a multidisciplinary approach been taken to examine this imagery and challenge and possibly reinterpret old women-related myths and other taken-for-granted aspects (e.g., grammatically inclusive gender). Moreover, this approach can better place the ideologies as myth creators and propagators, identify and deconstruct stereotypes and prejudices, and compare them across cultures with the view to spot universal vs. culturally specific approaches as far as women's studies and interpretations are concerned. It is important to gather these perspectives to translate and unveil new interpretations to old ideas about women and the feminine that are universally accepted as absolute, impossible to challenge, and invalidated truths. The Handbook of Research on Translating Myth and Reality in Women Imagery Across Disciplines is a comprehensive reference book that provides an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective on the perception and reception of women across time and space. It tackles various perspectives: gender studies, linguistic studies, literature and cultural studies, discourse analysis, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, etc. Its main objective is to present new approaches and propose new answers to old questions related to gender inequalities, stereotypes, and prejudices about women and their place in the world. Covering significant themes that include the ethics of embodiment, myth of motherhood at the crossroad of ideologies, translation of women's experiences and ideas across cultures, and discourses on women's rehabilitation and dignification across centuries, this book is critical for linguists, professionals, researchers, academicians, and students working in the fields of women's studies, gender studies, cultural studies, and literature, as well as other related categories such as political studies, education studies, philosophy, and the social sciences.

Emphasizing the role of and portrayal of emotion, this study argues for the inclusion of six late-eighteenth-century German-language novels by and about women in a revised canon. Literature written by women in German during the "Age of Goethe" was largely considered unworthy Trivialliteratur. Using insights from Gender Studies yet acknowledging the need for a literary canon, Great Books by German Women offers a critical interpretation of six canon-worthy German novels written by women in the period, which it calls the "Age of Emotion." The novels are chosen because they depict women's ordinary yet interesting lives and because each contains prose particularly expressive of emotion. Sophie von La Roche's Die Geschichte des Frauleins von Sternheim draws on the tradition of the epistolary novel while finding new ways to depict empathetic emotions. Friederike Unger's Julchen Grunthal brings to the Frauenroman or women's novel the use of irony to portray a heroine's emotions during her coming of age. Sophie Mereau's Blutenalter der Empfindung imagines women's affinity for the philosophical sublime, while Caroline Wolzogen depicts female desire in her Agnes von Lilien: both add lyricism to their prose, capturing sensual emotions. Karoline Fischer's Die Honigmonathe explores the agony that extreme emotions cause - not only for women but for men. And Caroline Pichler's Frauenwurde expands the focus from a young heroine to multiple mature characters. This study concludes that the influence of these six works was in no way trivial, either in portraying women's lives and emotions or in the history of German literature.

Women's mobility is central to understanding cultural constructions of gender. Regarding ancient cultures, including ancient Greece, a re-evaluation of women's mobility within the household and beyond it is currently taking place. This invites an informed analysis of female mobility in Greek myth, under the premise that myth may open a venue to social ideology and the imaginary. Female Mobility and Gendered Space in Ancient Greek Myth offers the first comprehensive analysis of this topic. It presents close readings of ancient texts, engaging with feminist thought and the 'mobility turn'. A variety of Olympian goddesses and mortal heroines are explored, and the analysis of their myths follows specific chronological considerations. Female mobility is presented in quite diverse ways in myth, reflecting cultural flexibility in imagining mobile goddesses and heroines. At the same time, the out-of-doors spaces that mortal heroines inhabit seem to lack a public or civic quality, with the heroines being contained behind 'glass walls'. In this respect, myth seems to reproduce the cultural limitations of ancient Greek social ideology on mobility, inviting us to reflect not only on the limits of mythic imagination but also on the timelessness of Greek myth.

"I'm glad I'm alive."

Doris Louise Bailey, a teen in the Prohibition era, writes this sentiment over and over in her diaries as she struggles with a life-threatening bout of scarlet fever. But it's also an apt summation of how she lived in the years following her brush with death. Reaching for the Moon: More Diaries of a Roaring Twenties Teen (1927-1929) contains Doris's true-life adventures as she flirts with boys, sneaks sips of whiskey and bets on racehorses - breaking rules and hearts along the way. In Portland, Oregon, she's the belle of the ball, enjoying the attention of several handsome gents. In Arizona, she rides a wild strawberry roan, winning races and kissing cowboys. From hospital wards and petting parties to rodeos and boarding school, this older, more complex Doris faces the dawning of the Depression and her own emergence as a young adult with even more humor, passion and love of life than she showed in her earlier diaries. Readers of all ages will relate to her pursuit of true love, freedom, and adventure in her own time and on her own terms.

Hope appears to be a typical young Christian woman at a Christian college, but behind the door of her dorm lies a secret life of past abuse, depression, eating disorders and self-mutilation. When her secrets become known, the past and present collide, and Hope finds her life spiraling out of control. Disowned and homeless, Hope realizes that, while she's known about God her entire life, she has never really understood unconditional love. Determined, and with a new-found faith, Hope returns home, attempting to reconcile with her family, and embarks on a journey of learning to find hope through life's roughest storms. Can Hope find acceptance and love? Can she sort through the lies she's learned, and find the truth of who she is, and who God is? Will the scars of past hurts ever fade, and allow her to have peace? From the mirror in her college dorm, to the mirror in her home today, follow Hope's journey of self-discovery, as she realizes her own strength, and allows her heart to heal.